By Josephine Walker

MILWAUKEE (Reuters) -Here is a selection of quotes from the 2024 Republican presidential candidates at their first debate in Milwaukee on Wednesday.

FLORIDA GOVERNOR RON DESANTIS

“We must reverse 'Bidenomics' so that middle class families have a chance to succeed again.”

“We need to lower your gas prices... We will be energy dominant again in this country.”

“I understand Wisconsin is going to do it different than Texas. I understand Iowa and New Hampshire are going to do it different but I will support the cause of life as governor and as President.”

TECH ENTREPRENEUR VIVEK RAMASWAMY

“You have a bunch of people, professional politicians, super PAC puppets, following slogans handed over to them by their poor underpaid Super PACs last week. The real choice we face in this primary is this: Do you want a super PAC puppet? Or do you want a patriot who speaks the truth? Do you want incremental reform, which is what you're hearing about, or do you want revolution?"

FORMER NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE

"We cannot sit by any longer and allow the kind of spending that's going on in Washington, (because) every dollar that they spend is a dollar that these people are not allowed to spend on their children and grandchildren - and it is wrong."

On Ramaswamy: “I've had enough, already tonight, of a guy who sounds like ChatGPT standing up here. And the last person in one of these debates, Brett, who stood in the middle of the stage and said, ‘What's a skinny guy with an odd last name doing up here?’ was Barack Obama and I'm afraid we're dealing with the same type of amateur standing on the stage tonight.”

FORMER VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE

On Ramaswamy: "Now is not the time for on-the-job training. We don't need to bring in a rookie, we don't need to bring in people without experience.”

FORMER U.N. AMBASSADOR NIKKI HALEY

"We have to look at the fact that three quarters of Americans don't want a rematch between Trump and Biden. And we have to face the fact that Trump is the most disliked politician in America. We can't win a general election that way."

"Can't we all agree that we're not going to put a woman in jail or give her the death penalty if she gets an abortion? Let's treat this like the respectful issue that it is and humanize the situation and stop demonizing that situation."

US SENATOR TIM SCOTT OF SOUTH CAROLINA

"If we want the environment to be better, and we all do, the best thing to do is to bring our jobs home from China. If we create 10 million new jobs in my Made in America plan, we will have a better economy and a better environment."

FORMER ARKANSAS GOVERNOR ASA HUTCHINSON

"I've pledged to reduce by 10% our federal non-defense workforce. That's a specific pledge to make that attacks the administrative state."

(Reporting By Josephine Walker in Washington; Editing by Ross Colvin and Andy Sullivan)